Earth moving, construction and mining equipment and the like are often used in rough, off-road terrain. These machines often employ an endless drive with track shoes that is better able to propel the machines in such environments over obstacles and uneven terrain, etc. The track chains, which include shoes, are held together by a series of interconnected track links, pins and bushings that are supported on the drive sprocket, idler and support rollers of the machine. As can be imagined, machines using a track chain may experience various problems as the machine moves.
For example, a track-type tractor track chain does not always roll smoothly over the idlers and bottom support rollers as the machine moves on various types of surfaces such as rock, gravel, or sandy surfaces. The chain can backbend (bunch up) in between idlers and bottom rollers, causing the machine and its associated work implement to bounce. Customer use of GPS (Global Positioning System) blade control is increasing, which drives higher performance expectations for the machine to be able to leave a very smooth graded surface.
Mechanisms such as hydraulic cylinders are used to move an idler wheel such as a front idler wheel to adjust the tension in the track. Greater tension may prevent some of the aforementioned problems. However, increased tension may result in a faster rate of wear for the components of the track chain, necessitating earlier maintenance of the track chain, leading to downtime for the machine and an associated economic loss for a business endeavor using the machine.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial if an apparatus and method were developed that could overcome any of the aforementioned problems without increasing the rate of wear for the components of the track chain.